Wind musical instrument



(No Model.)

J.HEALD. WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Patented Aug. 12, 1890.

- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

JOHN IIEALD, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 434 ,270, dated August 12 1890.

Application filed March 3, 1890. Serial No. 342,856. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN HEALD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Wind Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to Wind musical instruments having pitch changing devices therefor, (which instruments include cornets and those having similarly-constructed airtube passages between the mouth-piece and bell thereof,) and in which the air-ducts of said pitclrehanging devices are made with easy curves and those which are devoid of sharp angles, and whereby their operation is rendered easy without removing the instrument from the lips, and less exertion is required to blow it and the tone thereof is improved.

The invention, however, consists in particular details of construction embodied in an instrument of the class indicated, all substantially as will hereinafter more fully appear, and be set forth in the claim.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a wind instrument embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is an end elevation, looking from the mouth-piece toward the bell of an instrument, of the pitclrchanging devices. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of said devices-that is to say, the movable parts thereof. Fig. 4 is also a perspective view of that portion of said devices which is connected with the main air-ducts of the instrument.

In the drawings, A indicates a cornet, of which 3 is that portion of the main air-duct of the instrument leading from the mouthpiece 2 to the pitch-changing devices, and 4 is that portion of the air-duet leading from said devices, and the said pitch-changing devices have such connection with the said parts 3 and a of the main air-duct as provides practically for elongating or shortening said main duct at the will of the player, whereby the tone or pitch is changed, as below described. The said pitch-changing devices consist of a plate 5, having two short tubes 6 fixed thereto and extending from the rear side thereof, and eonnnunicatin g through perforations z in said plate with its inner side, which tubes provide a sliding tubular connection between said plate 5 and the ends of the said parts 3 and 4 of the main air-duct of the instrument. The said tubes 6 are adapted and fitted to slide closely within the said duct parts 3 and 4, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1, and they provide means for retaining or sustaining the pitch-changing devices in proper position on the instrument and for removing the same therefrom for cleaning or otherwise. The other portion of the pitcltchanging devices consists of a pitch-tube frame formed of two arc-shaped andperforated metallic plates 7, (see Fig. 3,) rigidly united to a bar 8, extending between them, said plates 7 having the perforations w therein. The said plates 7 are fitted into the arc-shaped grooves 9 on the face of said plate 5, and are ground or otherwise made tight, so that air may not escape therebetween, and said plates are held in position against the base of said grooves 9 by a screw 10, (see Fig. 1,) passing through the plate 5 and engaging with said bar 8. To the outer side of said plates 7, and communicat ing with the said perforations 00 therein, are

rigidly fixed two air-conduits or pitch-tubes 12 and 13, the latter being the shorter one and 12 the longer one. In the said plate 5 are fixed two stop-pins 0, which are located so that the bar 8, when the parts are assembled in operative positions, may swing between them and have its motions and those of said plates 7 limited, as and for the purpose below described.

The positions of the pitch-changing devices when assembled in operative relations are clearly shownin Fig. 1,the plates 7 and their attached air-conduits 12 and 13 being connected to the plate 5 by the pivot-screw 10, whereby the plates 7 and said conduits are permitted to have a reciprocating rotary motion, which is limited by the contact of the edges of said bar 8 with said stop-pins o. The said reciproeating rotary motion of the plates 7 and their connected parts provides for bringing either of the conduits 12 or 13 into such a position opposite the openings 2 in the plate 5 as will bring the same into connection with the portions 3 and 4 of the main air-duct of the instrumentthat is to say, referring to Fig. 2, in that figure the plates 7 are swung to such position as brings the air-conduit 12 into coincidence with the openings z through plate 5, and consequently with the ducts 3 and 4E communicating therewith, so that those ducts are elongated proportionate to the extension of the conduit 12, the tone produced by the parts in the position just described being the lower one; or, if the instrument be what is termeda B-instrumen t, the tone so produced will be that of B19. If, however, it becomes desirable to change the tone of the instrument to B natural, that is simply accomplished by turning the plates '7 an d their connected parts to bring the open ends of the air-tube 13 into positions communicating with the perforations 2; in the plate 5, and therefore with the air-ducts 3 and 4, whereby the latter are as much shortened as the tube 13 is shorter than the tube 12.

The above-described improved pitch-changing devices are intended to substitute when desired the well-kn own roll-in g-valve constru 0- tion, consisting of a disk of some thickness about an inch and a quarter in diameter, havin g air-passages bored from point to point on the periphery thereof, which operates to direct air-currents into longer or shorter passages, according as it maybe turned in its case; but in said valve the air-passages necessarily have rather angular courses, which more or less impede the freedom of action of the air-currents, and all objection of that nature is obviated by the use of the air-conduits 12 and 1:3 in the devices herein described and shown,

in which the curves are comparatively gradual and afford a free passage for the air as compared with those above described within said rotary valve.

The instrument is ordinarily held mainly by the left hand of the player, thus leaving the right hand with more or less freedom to manipulate the valves thereof and also the pitch changing devices, the latter, as described, having only to be turned slightly to the right or to the left to change the pitch, as aforesaid.

Vhat I claim as my invention is In a musical wind instrument of the class described, pitch-changing devices consisting of the plate 5, having tube connections for engagement with the main air-ducts of the instrument, and provided with the diametrically-opposed arc-formed grooves or depressions 9 9, and the stop-pins 0 0, combined with the pitch tube frame comprising the areformed metallic plates 7 7, adapted to fit and to be movable along said depressions 9 9, having the openings :1: a a: :11, and the uniting-bar 8, and the bowed pitchtubes of varying lengths by their extremities terminating in said openings, and the pivot-stud 10, all arranged substantially as described and shown, for the purpose set forth.

JOHN HEALD.

\Vitnesses:

H. A. CHAPIN, G. M. CHAMBERLAIN. 

